On Monday, Robert Murray, President and CEO of coal giant Murray Energy Corporation, called Tesla Motors a “fraud” on CNBC, going on to bash the company for failing to yet turn a profit despite subsidies.

“Tesla is a fraud. [It] has gotten $2 billion from the taxpayer and has not made a penny yet in cash flow. Here again, it’s subsidies,” Murray claimed.

Tesla founder Elon Musk fired back quickly on Twitter, writing that Tesla gets “pennies” on the dollar in subsidies compared with the coal industry, and that climate science denial is the “real fraud.”

But Murray is technically referring to the indirect subsidies that Tesla benefits from in the form of $7,500 tax credits issued to the purchaser of electric vehicles. So, first, it’s not Tesla that is receiving the $2 billion, but rather the American car buyers that choose to buy a Tesla, or any other electric vehicle. Technically, then, it’s inaccurate to say that Tesla has “gotten $2 billion” from the taxpayer.

But, sure, let’s grant that the company benefits from the increased demand encouraged by the consumer-facing subsidies. So how do those $2 billion in consumer-facing subsidies stack up to what the coal industry receives?

Below market leases on America’s public lands: Most of Murray’s mining operations are in the Northern Appalachia and the Illinois Basin, and most of the mines are on private lands. But at least one, the Lila Canyon mine in Utah is on publicly-owned lands, and so Murray takes advantage of the federal coal leasing process for that mine. It’s been shown time and time again that the federal coal leasing program is tantamount to a massive subsidy to coal companies, which are routinely buying coal owned by American taxpayers for well below market value.

Finally, it’s worth noting that none of these coal-supporting subsidy figures include the costs that are borne by taxpayers related to climate damage, or the local environmental and health impacts of the mining, transportation, combustion, and disposal of coal.

Our comprehensive review finds that the best estimate for the total economically quantifiable costs, based on a conservative weighting of many of the study findings, amount to some $345.3 billion, adding close to 17.8¢/kWh of electricity generated from coal…. These and the more difficult to quantify externalities are borne by the general public.

There are currently 52 bankrupt coal companies in the United States. This year, the prestigious McKinsey and Company issued a study showing that, as whole [sic], the United States coal industry is not only bankrupt, but that it also lacks $45 billion in the funds needed to cover its debt and employee-related and reclamation liabilities.

Even with all those billions in subsidies, 52 coal companies have gone bankrupt, and the industry as a whole is worse than bankrupt, owing $45 billion it doesn’t have for its current debts and liabilities. Murray called Tesla a “fraud” for far less dire a financial situation.

Now this isn’t related to Musk or Tesla or subsidies, but for the heck of it, and just so you are clear where Murray stands with respect to climate change, he wrapped up the segment with this remarkable statement:

“And by the way you could close down every coal fired power plant in the United States today and you would not affect the temperature of the earth at all. Not at all.”